Racial Capitalism and Antiracism: Research in Retrospect as Faculty and Caregivers of Color

• In Event: Equity-Focused Scholarship as Emancipatory and Liberatory Advocacy for Women of Color in Academia

Abstract

Purpose
As women, faculty of color (WoC), and caregivers to children, we engaged in retrospective reflexivity (Edge, 2011) by re-examining our recent research on anti-racism efforts in higher education and the children’s publishing industry. We discovered a convergence between our scholarship and our lived experiences that centered on “racial capitalism” (Robinson, 1983).

Theory
Racial capitalism posits that under the guise of efficiency, fiscal responsibility, long term viability and continuous improvement, decisions are made that ultimately depend on and exploit BIPOC for capital accumulation (Pirtle, 2020; Robinson, 1983).

Method
As collaborators and co-authors, we engaged in a series of conversations that led us to re-examine themes of white supremacy and racial capitalism that emerged from our recent scholarship on higher education and the publishing industry that came as a direct result of personal experiences and professional responsibilities in the academy that evolved our thinking about our work.

Data
In Article 1, the intersection of COVID-19, anti-Asian hate, and the Black Lives Matter movement were addressed in higher education. Article 2 highlighted the need to develop a critical social consciousness (Jemal, 2017) in children despite the recent surge of “diverse” or “antiracist” books and book lists proliferating the market (Fernando, 2021). These articles and our experiences led us to examine the uncritical, performative pursuit of “antiracist” efforts, books, movies, workshops, and webinars, that didn’t address deep-rooted systemic racism rampant in both industries.

Findings
Reflections on our research were punctuated by living through the pandemic and animated by higher education reopening plans, especially in-person options, that placed the highest risk on constituents of color, from loss of tuition to loss of life, which we personally experienced. Administrative pressure to teach in-person during the pandemic disproportionately compounded the impact of COVID-19 and racism on faculty of color relative to their white colleagues. Furthermore, power and privilege differentials between adjuncts, junior, and tenured faculty resulted in more risk and stress placed on those most vulnerable to budget cuts and non-reappointment. Parallely, the surge of antiracism professional development, BLM statements, and curriculum changes, was triggering to faculty of color and those who faced job insecurity. Performative antiracist efforts painfully revealed the entwining of systemic racism and capitalism allowing us to ask who holds power, who profits, and what values they uphold. The answer is “that most presidents, senior administrators, and trustees/regents at colleges and universities are white” (Harper, 2020).

Results
Both papers we co-authored show how racism and capitalism interconnect to sustain white supremacist status quos. Our findings were validated by a recent survey which showed there is less support for BLM now than before George Floyd’s murder (Yokley, 2021).

Significance
These findings highlight how our identities, particularly as WOC, inspired the focus of our scholarship on anti-racism, but also how these identities were re-shaped by our findings and underscored the imperative of our commitment to racial justice, in solidarity and out of necessity for our own survival in the academy and beyond.

Authors

• Divya Anand, Cambridge College

• Laura M. Hsu, Merrimack College